08 June 2013

Could Zelous Wheeler Help the Orioles?

The parent Orioles are still struggling at second base; Ryan Flaherty and Alexi Casilla aren’t hitting and Yamaico Navarro wasn’t doing the job defensively. If the Orioles got desperate, would Zelous Wheeler be an option? Could he plug the second-base
hole; either by playing second himself, or taking over at third, reassigning
Manny Machado and/or J.J. Hardy? If he did somehow get a chance, what would we
expect? Defensively, he could probably handle third base but I wouldn’t want to
play him at second or short on more than an emergency basis. I will look in
more detail at his offense.

First, some
background. Wheeler, who turned 26 in January, was claimed on waivers from the
Brewers at the end of the 2012 spring training. He spent most of 2012 at Bowie,
with three short stints at Norfolk (the beginning of the year, a brief period
in the middle, and the end of the year.) He’s been uncannily consistent
throughout his minor league career, although he’s performing substantially
better than his norms in 2013. Physically, he looks a lot like the
end-of-career Bill Madlock, if you remember him.

At first
glance, it looks as though Wheeler may be suffering from too little
aggressiveness, because he’s taking 68% of the pitches he sees. On the positive
side, when he does swing, he makes contact; of his swings, he’s only missed
10.3%.

For his
entire season at Norfolk (through June 6), Wheeler has walked only six times
and struck out only six times in 70 plate appearances. Players who take a lot
of pitches generally have high walk and strikeout rates; Wheeler does not. Nor
does Wheeler have a particularly high isolated power; his combined AA-and-AAA
2013 isolated power is .135. If the idea behind taking pitches is to wait for a
pitch to drive, the success of that notion isn’t reflected in his power.

Zelous
Wheeler would probably make a fine bench player for the Orioles. He can fill in
at third, second, or short, and can serve as a DH against lefthanded pitchers,
especially in an on-base offensive role. There’s no real reason to believe that
Zelous Wheeler is a realistic option for second base. Nowadays, most teams
don’t carry a bench player with Wheeler’s skills. He’s someone to be aware of,
but not to get too excited about.

3 comments:

completely agree on wheeler. saw him a lot at Bowie last year and he has the quick reaction and hands to do a good job at 3rd, but doesnt have the range to handle 2B or SS. potentially an up and down bench bat, but not someone who should be seeing regular time in the majors.

Is it worth dealing for Utley, since that's what Schoenfield and everyone seems to think will happen? I do NOT want to lose Bundy or KG, and I feel like Duquette doesn't either, so any deal would probably involve Schoop & Hoes. Your thoughts?

Also: Will Urrutia contribute this year? Yes, I get that his BABIP is quite high, but I feel like his upside is probably more than McLouth. Regardless, I definitely don't want to see him traded.

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